Which to use
“foray” is a noun and “furry” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #27,464
- “foray” frequency rank
- #13,727
- “furry” frequency rank
- 41191
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | foray | furry |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A sudden or irregular incursion in border warfare; hence, any irregular incursion for war or spoils; a raid. | Covered with fur, or with something resembling fur. |
Where the eye mixes foray and furry
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. foray (CVCVV) and furry (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses foray with furry
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: foray is /ˈfɒɹ.eɪ/ while furry is /ˈfɜː.ɹi/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41191, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
foray is recorded at frequency rank #27,464, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɒɹ.eɪ/. furry is at rank #13,727, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈfɜː.ɹi/.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 41191, this pair ranks #260,707 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of foray vs furry
Shared letters: fry. Private to "foray": ao. Private to "furry": u.
"foray" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "furry" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "foray" for "furry" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "foray" or "furry" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "foray" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "furry" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #260,707 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "foray" and "furry" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fora vs foray". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #260,707 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.